Operating systems are at the heart of all computer systems or computerized devices. An operating system provides an environment in which software applications and hardware are designed to operate. To that end, the operating system manages and schedules the resources of the computer or device it resides in, and provides various function modules and interfaces that can be used by the application programs to accomplish their tasks.
In some prior art systems, installation of application programs and operating systems is accomplished by discovering information about the hardware on the system, copying and decompressing source files, installing those files through such methods as library registration, and then configuring those installed files based on user input. This installation process is typically time consuming and many of the actions, particularly in the installing files phase, are the same regardless of the system that the application or operating system is installed on. With these prior art systems, discovering system information, copying and decompressing files, installing and registering files, and configuring user desires requires a significant length of time. Such systems lack a method for performing common installation actions once for a plurality of computers.
For these reasons, a system for image-based installation is desired to address one or more of these and other disadvantages.